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WTH FRONTISPIECE. 



NA/INCHESTEIR, OHIO: 
1916. 



A 



INTRODUCTORY NOTE. 

This with his first volume published, " Phocwn, 
a Dramatic Poem and Other Poems,'' includes 
nearly all of the author's earlier work, most of 
the pieces preceding in date those of his last book 
''Poems Descriptive, Narrative and Reflective" 
issued in 1915. 

Aug. 15. 1916. 



Copyright 1916, by E. A. Doyle. 



/^ 



^r 



OCT 19 1916 

CI.A445--i75 



CONTENTS. 



PAGE 

Trcezene— i4 Masque of the Gods 5 

Ceres 13 

^TNA 14 

The Web of Fate 15 

Chance and Nature 17 

Love AND May 19 

The Dewdrop 20 

The Death of Whittier 21 

The Young Philosopher 26 

Day Dreams 26 

A Thought 28 

Regnum Noctis 29 

The River 31 

Echo and the Mountain 33 

Earth'sCycle 35 

The Transmigration of Souls {To the Critic.) 37 

Love's Query And Answer 39 

Love In Summer 40 

Ode TO THE Universe 40 



tmuut Jl masoue of tbe 60(1$ 

Jupiter calls a general council of the Deities at 
Trcezene, on complaint of Neptune that the Greeks 
had built a wall about their ships rivaling the wall 
with which he had encircled Troy. 

Jupiter. 

Spirits and ministers and powers divine, 
Who inhabit earth or live in realms of air. 
Sharing our equal bliss, partakers alike 
Of nectar and ambrosia, immortality and hope, 
I summon you to appear. 

Juno. 

All spirits of the incorporeal air 

At my dissolving wand I bid appear. 

Far as yon argent bright unfolds its zone 

In solemn conclave round Jove's golden throne. 

Long banished from my favored realms of joy, 

1 his is my prayer and this my sole employ : 

To countervail the harsh decrees of fate 

And confound the remnant of the Trojan state. 

For this my peacocks cleft the liquid blue ; 
For this my zephyrs wept their holiest dew : 



6 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

For this the rising vapors choke the land, 

As before Jove's altar day and night I stand. 

E'en Italy and Argos I resign, 

For what were cities to a fame like mine ! 

Grant thou my wish and bid the Greeks to spare, 

Whose strong petitions shake thy throne with 

prayer — 
Then shall fresh incense arise to thee more sweet 
From the dittany and poppy at my feet. 

Mercury. 

O'er sea and land to hell's devouring jaws 

I swift traversed the bounds of space and time. 

My task at last is ended ; behold, they come! 

War in the van. Love at the rear: see the conquer- 
ing Mars ! 

Thrice armed with the strength of gods and 
mortal men. 

Mars. 

I come from fields of blood with carnage red. 
Yesterday two strong armies front to tront 
I drew to battle, but long ere night 
I left the field with a thousand corses strewn. 
Next 'twixt two brothers wrought a fatal feud : 
Then father and son in a deadly quarrel joined — 
I maimed the father and slew the son, 
Yet must I obey the king of gods and men. 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 



Mercury. 

Who comes next? 
Whose sides are red with flame, and from whose 

mouth 
Exhales a mighty smoke. 
Not fiercer tumult make the thunderbolts, 
Or the fierce mate of Mars' inconstant reign, 
Who when in doubtful scale the combat hung, 
O'erthrew the chariot of the god of war. 
'Tis the Keeper of Avernus, who from his fiery 

seat 
Emerges to plague the upper world, but comes 
Unbidden to our court. 

Hades. 
From realms of gloom— Tartarean abodes, 
Past Cerberus I a rapid exit made. 
Long did I cast my sickle on the earth 
To reap the fairest of the race of men. 
The strong and weak in death inexorable 
Meet in my wide domain, o'er which with thee 
I hold disputed sway, O mighty king. 

Mercury. 

Back to thy native shades, why comest thou here 
To mar our feast? [Exit Hades,] 

Apollo. 

A milder sway is mine, more peaceful scenes. 
Through thrice ten cycles of revolving years 



8 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

I moved the sun in his diurnal course, 
Then gave the reins unto the king of day, 
Strong Helios, who relinquished to his son, 
Whose heedless haste either froze or burned the 

earth. 
Through sea and land o'er every clime I fly, 
My bow and silver lyre my only joy, 
And when in happy age men's blood run cold, 
I slay them with my silver shafts that yield no 

pain. 
Late flying: over wide Hesperian fields, 
I lulled to sleep the muses with my lyre : 
The fawns and dryads scared at my approach 
Fled devious ; through Hymettus' flowery glades 
I sipped the budding sweets : and straight from 

thence 
I moved Dodona's vocal reeds with song. 
Now my song is ended, unstrung my silver lyre. 

Diana. 

I from the chase have come, where, with stag and 

hound, 
I pursued the hart, fleet as the bounding roe : 
The nymphs and satyrs, seeing me draw near. 
Crouch low at my feet, yet I harm them not ; 
Though once Actaeon I in caprice changed 
Into a stag when he saw me in the bath : 
For such strong power hath chastity o'er men, 
I pass unscathed by day and night through the 

world. 



OF THE GODS, ETC, 9 

Artemis. 
Through the peaceful fields of Science I range, 
To bless the race of man with pleasant toil, 
Nor void of all beneficent result, 
Contemning ill and wars I eager wait 
The happy age when men shall live in peace ; 
And in the late decrepitude of time, 
Invention rear her fabric to the skies, 
And multiply the riches of the mind. 
When wider schemes more suited to their use 
Shall flourish, though not wanting strength and 

grace, 
And outward show of fine embelishment. 
Yet with strong truth so knit and intermixed, 
It shall leave no crack for error's warping wiles. 

Once to King Koleus, clothed in strange disguise, 
I appeared at Eleusis and was kindly treated. 
To instruct his children in the arts of knowledge, 
This was my pleasant task, which when revived. 
O'er all mankind shall stretch my powerful wand, 
Until, renewed the earth again shall smile 
As in the golden age, and wars shall be no more. 

Heph^stos. 
From caverned shades of darkest gloom I come, 
Where late I forged the Titans' thunderbolts 
Waged 'gainst all-judging Jove, that strife 

appeased, 
What stronger mandate calls me here ? 



10 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

Ceres. 

My golden harvests I have left unshorn, 
Where cheerful reapers joined in merry song 
Pass the blithe hours; a sadder fate is mine. 
Is it not enough my daughter should be seized, 
The mate of fiery Pluto, for six brief moons 
Revisiting the scenes of upper air, 
That I with repetition of vain moan 
Should vex your ears father of gods and men ? 

Venus. 

Long had I wandered from the Delian isle. 

My only companions, Cytherea's doves ; 

Until Adonis, careless youth, I spied, 

And panted to embrace the lovely boy : 

But he fled — strangely was he moved to hate — - 

And scarce had he escaped from my arms 

Than I found him slain by some hideous beast. 

O fruitless love ! now I am left to mourn, 

My charms despised, my kindness turned to scorn, 

Neptune 

With three strong bounds I crossed the wide 

arched sky, 
And hither come to greet this solemn conclave. 
At whose command these celestial powers 
Assemble here and in joint counsel wait. 
The earth with thy magnificence is filled, 
King, Creator, Father, whose dread decree 
Seals all thmgs both for gods and mortal men, 



OF THE GODS, ETC, 11 

Save the Fates' strong oracles, whose secrets lie 

hid 
Beneath thy throne. I a suppliant come 
To crave redress of certain grievances 
Against my watery realm — insults vast, 
Such as all-sovereign Jove might not approve. 
For late unto my ears was brought report 
Of a strange breach that forfeits all reprieve. 
For lo ! the Greeks about their ships have built 
A circling rampart, massy, large and strong. 
To rival the walls with which I girdled Troy. 
Now all my glory soon shall be forgot, 
My projects fail, ambition turn awry. 
And my great schemes dissolve in empty air. 

Jupiter. 

Strcng son of heaven, thine is the azure main; 
Thine are the kingdcms of the coral caves; 
Thine are the sisters of the silver flood, 
And all the mighty strength of ocean thine! 
Then mightst thcu with thy strong waves arise 
And level all the fabric in the dust. 

[After a consultation of the Deities, the Council is 
dissolved.], 

But now the hour is drawing to a close. 
For e'en celestial powers must seek repose : 
'Tis fitting now each several spirit join 
In one strong purpose and one will divine ; 



12 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

That order out of chaos may appear, 
And truth be poised in equal hemisphere. 



He said : the noise subsides and discords cease, 

And fragrant zephyrs bear the dews of peace. 

Each strives the various clamor to assuage, 

Till harmony prevails o'er senseless rage. 

Jove strikes the ground, and at the fearful sound 

The mountains tremble and the hills around: 

A steaming vapor from the earth ascends. 

Each power a favorite minister attends ; 

The celestial spaces open to their view 

And half enclose the earth with heavenly blue — 

A rosy cloud diffuses liquid light, 

And wafts them to Olympus out of sight. 




OF THE GODS, ETC. 15 



Ceresf, 

Ceres through the long dark winter months 
Mourns ever for her daughter Proserpine, 
As with sad voice she sings : 

"Haste, happy hour, when my daughter, 
Doomed to pine in the Stygean gloom 

Of the dark prison-palace of Pluto, 
Which the black shades of Hades illume. 

Shall appear once again in the sunlight. 
In the dawn of the year to the plain : 

To bring the ripe fruits of the harvest. 
And make bud the corn and the grain, 
And the flowers I shall soon pluck again." 

But Proserpina in her dark home below 
In the underworld mourns ever with wailing voice 
Her wintry bondage as she sings : 

"Ceres, O mother above me, 

Hear the voice of thy desolate child ; 
The song of thy long-prisoned daughter. 

Doth it pierce through my dark cavern wild 
To thee above in thy earth-home ? 

O list to my heart-weary cry ; 
'Tis I, Proserpina, thy daughter, 

'Tis the voice of thy daughter, 'tis I : 
I O thither how quick would I fly !" 



But when spring returns again to the earth, 
She bursts her prison-house, joining above 
tier mother, then Danae, the Earth, sings : 



14 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

* 'Now Cometh the fruit of the summer, 
And passeth the winter of gloom ; 

Behold in profusion upspringing 

How hasteneth the bud and the bloom. 

How swiftly my pulses are stirring, 
When comes the glad reaping again ! 

For bright is the meadow with blossom, 
And covered with verdure the plain. 
And crowned with rich harvests of grain." 



aetna. 



A thousand streams of burning lava dart 
From the dark mountain, pouring a red sea 
Down its rough sides with smoke and hissing 

steam, 
Stirred by the groaning Enceladus within ; 
'Tis Vulcan at his forge mid smoke and heat. 
And through those dark caves where Venus' feet 

once stept, 
Around whose path thronged the Graces and the 

loves, 
The torrent maddens and the wild stream rushes, 
And flaming serpents twist their fiery forms. 
Burning the mountam to a barren cinder. 
So love is often linked with warlike deeds. 
Years pass and nature repairs the sudden shock. 
Fair Flora springs again, wooed by Zephyrus; 
Peace sleeps secure upon the grassy slope 
Of upland, mountain and valley, and where once 
Fierce Titans strove the shepherd keeps his fiock 
Silent and undisturbed for centuries. 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 15 



©tie ^elj of Jfate, 

In ancient times, 'twas often said, 
When man was in his first estate, 

That all his inner life was bound 
By strong Necessity and Fate. 

But wiser than the seers of old. 
Or voice of the Dodonian oak, 

Or Delphic oracle unrolled. 
Is this stern truth the poet spoke : 

The web of human fate is wove 
By hands both human and divine ; 

The power and guidance is above, 
The skillful fingers yours and mine. 

Mixed with sorrow, mixed with joy, 
Weave life's web in light and shade. 

Slender be the threads or strong. 
Be the right foundation laid ; 

That the Power who sits above. 
Ruling o'er the ways of men. 

Seeing shall the work approve. 
And reward with noble gain. 

Onward, upward, without rest : 
Seize the moments as they fly ; 

Only he who strives is blest. 
He that lags behind must die. 



16 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

Fools may babble, men may rage, 

Yet no respite may he ask, 
Till the fullness of his age 

Brings the well-accomplished task. 

Life is king and lord of death ; 

Lord is he of war and peace : 
Never till life's latest breath 

Will the flying shuttles cease. 

Let the dark and gloomy past 

Light the future's darker way : 
On the wreck of yesterday 

Build the temple of to-day. 

Let it rise and fror^t the sun, 

Crowned with promise, wreathed with 
flowers ; 
And faith end what hope begun, 

Waiting on time's growing powers. 

Let its stately columns rise. 
That shall strike among the spheres. 

Till celestial visions greet the eyes, 
Heavenly strains salute the ears, 

That the Immortals who descend 

Resting on its front sublime. 
Shall say : "Behold the glorious end : 

See the master work of time ! 

Though with feeble step and slow 
He hath mounted earth's incline, 

Yet all fearless did he go. 
And his life was half divine." 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 17 



Cftance anb iBtature. 

One day Chance dropped an acorn seed 

Into earth's fruitful mold : 
Beside a rank and poisonous weed 

The little oak-seed rolled. 

First it lay prone, then reaching out 

Its tendrils toward the light, 
The acorn seed began to sprout, 

It grew by day and night. 

It grew beneath the summer breeze, 

It grew through winter's snows, 
Until among the forest trees 

A giant oak it rose 

With branches large and wide, which seemed 

Almost to touch the sky ; 
"Behold !" said Chance, "I scarce had'.dreamed 

Such magic powers had I, 

For lo, the seed I careless dropped 

Down in the fruitful earth. 
Has grown on since, and never stopped 

To a tree of monstrous girth ; 

And in its foliage far and wide 

The birds of heaven dwell ; 
Behold my power, can one beside 

Such deeds of wonder tell ?" 



18 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

"Yes," said the tree, "you bore the seed 

Down to the earth, 'tis true — 
I might have been that feeble weed, 

Still no more power had you. 

For rather than to one beside 

The g^lory belongs to me : 
For had I withered, drooped and died, 

I had never been a tree." 

"You both do err," was Nature's reply, 

"I started the tree forth, 
And from my bosom bore it high 

To flourish in the earth. 

Had I refused to yield my food. 

Or caused the showers to fall, 
What's now the glory of the wood 

Had never grown at all." 

So in the world, when by a few 

Some matchless deed is done ; 
Not to a single cause is the glory due — 

But to each and all in one. 

For God hath weighed the stars 

In balances so small, 
A hair's-breadth swerve the whole work mars 

And ruin covers all. 

As in each orb that moves about 

The sky without a flaw, 
So to the mind he has given out 

His fixed and changeless law. 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 19 



lobe anb iWap. 

Love that lovest best in May 
Through the forest paths to stray. 
Met a bright and fairy child 
Playing in the woodland wild. 
Light her locks of golden hair, 
That with moonbeams might compare, 
And her eyes' cerulean hue 
Image was of heaven's own blue. 

"May," he said, "thou art most fair, 
'Round my heart thou'st set thy snare. 
Now since y ou and 1 have met, 
Ne'er can I thy face forget. 
Would that thou and I were wed : 
Fairies should deck our bridal-bed. 
Pleasing scents and balmy flowers 
Should beguile life's rosy hours. 
And the humming-bird at noon 
For our love-feast chant a tune ; 
While from bush and flower and tree, 
All day long would sing the bee : 
And the louder madrigals 
Would ring out our marriage-bells 
From the wild bird's fervid throat ; 
All the hours will we devote 
To love's coquetries, more blest 
Than was ever dreamt or guessed." 
With roses for their wedding bed. 
Thus were Love and May fast wed. 



20 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 



Cfje JBetobrop. 

I saw a dewdrop on the window-sill, 
Flushed with the splendor of the early morn : 

Such liquid beauty could nights depth's distill, 
All in a fleeting moment to be born ? 

Bright-hued and radiant as some orient gem 
Gathered Irom nature's antiquarian store. 

What king could covet for his diadem 
A richer wealth of lustre than it bore ? ! 

How many prisoned rays of light it holds ! 

The ruby lent its red, emerald its green ; | 

Nature hersecretest labyrinths unfolds, | 

That all within those celled walls might be seen | 

And lo ! what myriad forms to being start i 

Within its sphere all organized with life ; | 

Creation's power throbs vibrant at its heart. 
And from its inmost center force is rife. 

A thousand bubbles sparkled where it grew, i 

A thousand rivulets ran it to the sea : | 

To think at last 'tis but a point of dew, ; 

Left by the wind or dropped from leaf of tree. i 

What mighty mind can grasp a point ot dew ? ! 

What greater wonders, wonders without end, | 

If things so small present so much to view, j 

Must through the full-orbed universe extend ! 

Forth from his covert comes the July sun : i 

When lo, how quickly the gorgeous colors fiy, I 

And how those rainbow wonders one by one ! 

Withdraw their fleeting glories from the eye ! i 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 21 



Swift as the fading gleams of dying day, 
Touched by a vaporous rosy-colored flame, 

The prismad spectacle melts away 

Into the vacant air from whence it came. 

One day, scorched by some flery sun. 
When stars strike and when planets clash, 

From mountain peak to peak swift flames shall 
run, 
The universe will vanish in a flash. 

The power that can annul a drop of rain 

Prepares it for its post-natal birth : 
Dowers with precious plenitude again 

To fructify rejuvenate the earth. 

How great the alembic power that thus can fill 
Earth's arteries with flame— demoniac force ! 

But higher still the jurisprudent skill 
Which keeps the tireless planet in its course. 



Sfje ©eatf) of OTijittier. 
I. 

The airy cloud at early dawn 

That bathes its crest in seas of glory ; 
The moonlight trembling on the lawn, 

Or feet of them that tell the story— 
"Life is a leaf that withereth," 

They say, the self-same tale repeating : 
Nothing endures beyond the death 

Of life in life and time's brief greeting.' 



22 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

"Life is a painted cloud," they say, 

Scarcely more lasting than its glimmer; 
We are but creatures of a day, 

As insects in the sunlight shimmer. 
Though time may grant a transient grace, 

Vouchsafe a momentary pleasure, 
He heaps up in one gorgeous place 

No golden overflowing treasure." 

But when to dust is given mute dust ; 

When spirit returns to spirit's giving. 
Then Faith uplifts the lamp of Trust, 

And life, we feel's more than mere living. 
And when the deathless song is sung, 

Its golden notes for aye will linger. 
As on those ears where first they rung, 

Will dwell the accents of the singjer." 

II. 

Only endure 

The good, true and pure; 
All things else shall pass away. 
Swift as flies the fleeting day : 

Only endure 

The good, true and pure. 

The loaded ships at anchor lie 
Of Truth's Golden Argosy. 
Though they may nevermore 
Reach that ultimate shore 
Where star-crowned Truth sits canopied in state ; 
Though loaded down with weight 
Is each precious frigate. 
Yet never will they cast overboard 
The faith by which they're linked and moor'd 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 23 



Unto the shining strand. 
Though they may idly ride 
The wave and breast the tide, 
But only as truth spreads the sails, 
Will they survive the ocean gales. 
Only by steadfast nerve and iron hand 
Of those who watch at helm and keel. 
Will they their ocean foes withstand, 
And reach at last the inner realm. 
The peaceful land of poets' dreams. 



A Poet on a morning walk, 

1 iring of friends and their idle talk. 

Sought the lone woods and there did spy 
A murmuring brook that babbled by. 

**Where dost thou go, O brook?" said he. 
"I go to join the brimming sea." 

"But why such haste?" the brook replied : 
"Why do [ thus so swiftly glide? 

Know thou, O Poet, it is meet 

That I the brimming gulf should greet : 

That gulf that towards the boundless sea 
Bears ever onward it and me. 

Yet 'twixt the goal doth intervene 
Full many a mile of sunlit green; 

I with my drops of generous dew 
Must water these as I pass through, 



24 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

And o'er all the glorious plain 
Soon I shall fall in showers of rain." 

The poet heard, his fault confessed ; 
Determined life should have new zest, 

That he no more his work should find 
Apart from the work of human kind. 

So in the meadow land of song 
Only the life-giving endureth long, 
And Right still triumphs over Wrong, 
And they lead the Immortals' van 
Who sing the Brotherhood of Man : 
The sovereign power of noble deeds 
That lives above mere human creeds. 
And dwells to perpetuity 
As broad and boundless as the sea. 

III. 

Strong patriot and patriot bard who flung 
His soul into the work of human weal — 

The sweetest of our singers who have sung : 
First among those who taught our feet to kneel 

Before the altar of one God, when broke 

His lips in music, well knew we whose voice it was 
that spoke. 

His lyre was ever attuned to Freedom's cause, 
Through all the years that crowned his honored 
head : 

For fair and just and equitable laws. 
Until he saw fulfilled the hope which led 

His voice to prophesy, till from four million slaves 

The shackles fell between the two ocean's waves. 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 25 



Now join these of his brethren lately freed 

From bondage, they of all kindred join 
The mourner's strain, glad that as in the hour of 
need. 
When fell our martyrs, unthwarted still's 
heaven's design, 
' To the grave that is no grave though he should 
descend, 
And though that life should end which hath no 
end. 

And yet ill-omened seems it still that on 
This golden triumph of our natal day* 

That one more spirit-light should be withdrawn, 
One soul which pointed to the perfect way : 

Heaven grant a kindly providence may disperse 

The clouds and change to blessing's form the 
curse. 

We feel the Power that guided us thus far, 

Who didst preserve and keeps the nation great; 
Who hast prepared the armies for her war, 
In peace gave power and permanence to the 
state. 
Will still direct : a wall of granite stand 
Her favored sons to guard from foes on every 
hand. 

Sept. 15, 1892. 



*Four hundredth anniversary of the discovery 
of America. 



26 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 



Deep in a happy valley far removed 

From the world and the scenes of active life lived 

Jean, 
A plain rough farmer's son, whom the sultry suns 
Ot some eighteen summers ripened, burnt and 

bronzed 
To rustic health, and so in sun and shade 
He grew like a wild-flower by the river's brink. 

One companion only shared his youthful sports — 
Mildred, a neighbor's daughter; often in play 
They would romp together, or roam among the 

hills, 
In search of berries that grew in the fields near the 

brook, 
Or chase the squirrel through the woods. It was 

a spot 
Of natural loveliness, set in a sphere 
Of circling lakes and forests of young oaks, 
And the scenes would arouse poetic reveries 
In the boy, and dreams of another world than his. 
And stir the genius slumbering in his soul ; 
And while he mused beside the crystal streams, 
He wrought his roving fancies into this : 

DAY-DREAMS. 

Sweet are those dreams which are at last 
Like flitting phantoms of the past— 
The golden dawn of youth's first days 
Alit by Hope's bright ruddy rays ; 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 27 

The hours that we enjoyed at school : 
The present with its iron rule, 
And life's procession passing by 
Beneath the fervor of the sky ; 
But sweeter still where Fancy gleams, 
Mirroring the future's pleasant streams : 
O may they all fulfillment bring, 
Soil not the heart and leave no sting. 

Sometimes to the boy came dreams of growing 

power; 
The seeds of promise ripening in the fruit 
Of full achievement, and in the sand 
He carved a name to shine among the stars, 
And blossom in the flowery walks of fame, 
^s Science lured him to more arduous paths. 
The old philosophers had a charmed sound. 
And like the alchemists smote the web of things 
And rolled a flood of glory on his ears, 
Turning all the silver of his thought to gold; 
And many a rare and antiquated phrase 
Shone like the full moon large and luminous. 
New coined within the mintage of his brain. 
For when he thought of all great men have done. 
He loathed a life of barren commonplace, 
And longed for glorious fame : he should be 
A great inventor whose increasing skill 
Would wake the springs of action into newer life, 
A reformer moulding opinion in straighter grooves 
Or a discoverer, roaming over foreign lands. 
And when the vast hall of Science was complete. 
His name should stand upon its crowning stone, 
A brilliant star, the marvel of the age ! 
And while he mused and dreamed, like a summer 

bird 



28 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

That soars above the vision far away, 
Lost inuntrammeled hght, thus he poetized : 

A THOUGHT. 
What is a thought?— a breath blown free 
Of the world's wondrous symmetry : 
A portion of the starUt skies ; 
A breeze at morn, a maiden's eyes ; 
A ballad, rhyme or random tune 
Caught from the clear and fervid noon — 
A whisper when the world is still 
Of blowing flower-bell, tinkling rill ; 
A voice when the noise waxes loud : 
The buzz and tumult of the crowd— 
And flashed to the region of the mind 
To show we are but dumb and blind 
Beside the spirit and the force 
Which guides the unseen universe. 
Whether by some inward gleam 
Of memory caught in Fancy's dream 
Of far-off sea or wildering stream, 
Wandering till on some perfect day 
Surprised in her devious way — 
Whether in winter bleak, mild spring. 
Or red with summer's blossoming : 
And wherever it is found. 
It hath no corporeal bound : 
The spirit here, the substance there. 
Yet both and all are everywhere, 
Though half its import to express 
Racks the heart's unsearched feebleness. 

And ever Mildred mingled in his dreams 

His guide and guardian in those happier spheres. 

Thus dreamed the boy nor knew it was all a dream 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 29 

And that with time he would be reft of half, 
And left the other half as dower of hope. 
The love of learning lured him into paths 
Beyond his years ; first Bacon the sage, 
Then wise Aurelius, and he more than prince 
Of all philosophers, Plato, schooled his mind 
To leave the low level of his common thought, 
And roam like the gods of old a larger world. 
He loved all natural objects and had built 
A garden in a bare acre, filled with rare 
Zoologies : fish, reptile, beast and bird. 
He captured butterflies, tore off their wings, 
And curious insects he impaled on hooks. 
And labeled with never-to-be-pronounced names ; 
He delved for specimens among the rocks, 
And hunted shells and fossils by the brook. 
But most of all he loved astronomy, 
And had the attic filled with maps and charts. 
And curious carvings made of plaster and of chalk 
In which the orbs were variously designed. 
For the sun he made a massive globe of white: 
Sirius shone in a purple crescent, Arcturus 
Was marked by a red cross, and the Polar star, 
A blue circle, the moon by a small round dot. 
And the Milky Way by patches of thin white. 
Then, glancing from his chart to the heavens 

above. 
Of which it was the image, he composed this hymn: 

REGNUM NOCTIS. 

A golden flood of moonlight falls 
To earth, and bathes in seas of light 

The ruined palaces and walls 
Of castles in the fairy night : 



30 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

And swells aloft a voice of praise 
From her the crowned of ancient days, 
With no one left but night and me 
To list to nature's symphony. 

The concerts of the quiet oaks 

Have in the world no sweeter sounds ; 
Time's passage mark with steadier strokes. 

Chroniclers of seasons in their rounds, 
Than do the hour and minute-hands 
Of all the clocks in all the lands- 
Softer than organ-music breaks 
The laughter of the rippling lakes. 

When man on earth a transient guest 
This robe of flesh doth hardly bear, 
And, tossed about with vague unrest, 
Seeks comfort from the sky and air : 
The music of the lowing herds, 
The chirp of crickets, songs of birds. 
Seem to the spirit sweeter far 
Than city choirs and minstrel's jar. 

Sometimes when the breath of spring was in the 

fields. 
He loved to walk along the river's bank 
With Charles, a friend who came down from col- 
lege to see 
The country sights, wherever their impulse led ; 
And there he opened unto him his soul. 
Told of his vague ambitions and his dreams. 
And how he was vexed by old perplexities, 
The problem that moved the minds of olden time 
To solve the ancient riddle of the earth : 
How all things come from cosmos, but what is 
cosmos ? 



OF THE GODS, ETC, 31 



By primordial law — but whence that law, 
In air or flame or flood ? Then would he discourse 
Of pagan creeds and old mythologies, 
And those grotesque animal beliefs 
Where all was leveled down to brutish lust, 
Matter was all in all and spirit nothing. 
Then of Lucretius and his atomic scheme ; 
Next of Thales, who held all things arose 
Naiad-like from water, until at last 
His soul took flight on Plato's loftier thought. 
And he read, or fancied that he read, the truth 
Of nature, and for matter he wrote spirit : 
Till in the Christian faith more hopeful still. 
He cast an anchor firm, secure of change, 
Sawall things moved by some divine decree. 
Although we know not how it moves and acts. 
And then they came by degrees to the water-fall, 
A roaring, splashing foaming whirling torrent. 
Which ran to the gulf and sank in foam below : 
And all they kr.ew or saw was the raging stream. 
And far away the bubbles break beneath. 

THE RIVER, 

A devious way the river runs. 
Past meadow, grove and town : 

Now whirling into eddying bays. 
Now gently sloping down, 

Until at last by slow degrees, 

It nears the waterfall, 
And there it rushes o'er the brink, 

One plunge, and that is all. 



32 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

Said Charles : ''What is it moves the stream ? 

Some force I can not see ; 
And yet it rises, frets and fumes, 

And rages ceaselessly. 

"I know not whence the water comes. 

Nor whither it doth go: 
I see it rushing like the wind. 

And bubbling up below. 

"The stream it flows with a pleasant sound 

Its pleasant banks between ; 
By day and night it murmurs on. 

Through woods and meadows green. 

"It has a voice for every mood. 

And as it whirls along, 
It leaps for joy in sun and shade, 

And ripples into song. 

"Last night upon its banks I stood 

Above the torrent's brink : 
I cast a stone, soon far away 

I saw it rise and sink. 

" What mystic force within the stream 

Doth curb that torrent's flow ? 
For, though it rushes like the wind. 

It bubbles up below." 

The mountain is of monstrous size, 

But it is not all in all : 
'Tis not its hugeness makes it great, 

Nor is the little small. 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 33 

The strong wind hath a fearful force, 

And seemeth to be blind : 
And yet the power behind the wind 

Is greater than the wind. 

There is one law, one element, 
In mountain, wind and stream : 

A power that can make whole again 
The sunlight's scattered beam. 

One law both human and divine. 

But who is there can know 
Wherefore it rushes like the wind, 

And bubbles up below. 

Sometimes the sounds of the distant village smote 
His ear, and mingled with the music of the brook. 
As he sat for hours watching his bobbing cork, 
And now and again he drew a trout ashore — 
They brought report of a world beyond his world. 
And he longed to move within that wider sphere. 
And mingle with the world of living men ; 
Until a nibbling fish recalled his wandering 

thoughts, 
And made the tuture to the present yield. 
And he recalled many a fantastic legend of the 

place. 
One was the fragment of an ancient rhyme, 
That ran as follows : 

ECHO AND THE MOUNTAIN. *. 

An Echo once dwelt in a mountain. 
Through which flowed many a silvery fountain, 
And many a gushing water rill 
Ran down the thirsty earth to fill. 



34 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

Said Echo : "In some cavern deep, 

I'll hide myself and sink to sleep, 

Lulled by the brook that murmurs near, 

No one will know that I am here." 

But lo, it chanced upon a day, 

Herdsman with horn to pass that way, 

Who, as he marked from the cliff's brow 

The moonli£ht gild the wave below. 

Blew such a blast that with the sound 

The mountain quivered all around. 

Now when the noise the herdsman made 

Had pierced the thick and tangled shade 

Where Echo had lain himself to sleep 

Beside a mossed and craggy steep, 

Lulled by the brook that murmured near, 

He started up and cried, "here ! here!" 

The sounds now pierced the mountain through. 

From cliff to cliff they lightly flew, 

As each by Echo made more mellow. 

In music bursts from hill and hollow. 

But soon it came, he left his early home 
For a distant city, where he spent some years 
In study at college, but when he returned, 
Again to his happy valley, he had changed. 
He affected city ways, wore a brisker look. 
Mingled with an air of scholarly repose, 
Which quite repelled his old associates. 

And Mildred, his early idol, had removed 
During his absence to a distant state ; 
The light and music of his life was gone. 
So he pined from day to day, worn down at last 
To a mere shadow, and forgot his philosophic 
dreams. 

Tis said the idealismore often the tomb 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 35 

Of the real than its portal : the fairest rose 
Of summer will fade, the brightest day 
Pass into night and fancy's most gorgeous dreams 
Fade in the light of dull reality. 
And time that weaves the circle of the hours 
In a golden web, produces many a change. 
He lived and died a miserly old man, 
On the same farm where once he had worked 

and dreamed. 
So passed a score of years, until one day. 
He receieved a letter from his former love. 
She was married, she said, resided in New York ; 
Her husband was the wealthy Diamondust, 
Banker and broker of Fourth ward A, 
She sent her card with address. Fifth Avenue, 
She was happy now, and hoped the same of him. 



€arti)*2J Cpcle. 

Money was made to spend. 

Water was made to flow : 
The willow-twig was made to bend, 

And wheels were made to go. 
Time was made to be gone, 

And hope for the comfort of man— 
And love was made to be lost or won. 

Since heaven and earth began. 

Money was made to spend. 

And O the fearful load 
On the steps of those that borrow or lend, 

It drives with its iron goad ! 



36 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 



For, found in the marts of trade, 

Or the miser's hoarded gain : 
In the wealth of the man who has millions 
made. 

It is trouble and strife and pain ! 

Water was made to flow, 

The thirsty earth to cheer, 
Bring plenty to the vale below, 

And crown the vernal year ; 
The wheels of the mill to turn, 

That man might be given bread— 
For from a never-failing urn 

The water of life is shed. 

The willow was made to bend, 

As nature was made to yield 
To the hand of them that watch and tend 

O'er valley, farm and field. 
To sceptre and sword and pen 

Were given a sacred trust : 
How quickly each returns again. 

To mingle with earth and dust ! 

Wheels were made to go ; 

To obey the behest of man. 
Through a thousand spindles, rythmic, aglow 

The electric current ran. 
And Hope is the star of dawn 

That guideth from place to place; 
And sympathy the cord it resteth on. 

Which binds us race to race. 



OF THE GODS, ETC, 37 

Money was made to spend. 

Water was made to flow : 
The willow-twig was made to bend, 

And wheels were made to go. 
Time was made to be gone, 

And hope for the comfort of man— 
And love was made to be lost or won. 

Since heaven and earth began. 
1893, 



Wi}t tCransfmigration of S>ouljaf. 

(TO THE CRITIC.) 

Some critics do liiile more than ape their prede 
cessors in the art. 

'Twas once a pleasant fiction of the race. 

And is so yet, souls change their dwelling place. 

Inhabiting torms of grosser dust — 

Though not more senseless than they, I trust — 

Or finer : through successive stages ran 

All life, from beast, bird, reptile up to man. 

The soul of the elephant might pass to a dog, 

The fierce hyena become a croaking frog. 

Even the wild lion might doff his skin, 

Turned to a mouse or rat or terrapin. 

The striped zebra might change to a raccoon, 

The fleet gazelle become a mastodon, 

The feathered pelican change to a whale. 

The tiger become a harmless nightingale. 

And the poisonous cobra forget his bite, 

Turned to an inoffensive bat or kite ; 



38 TRCEZENE : A MASQUE 

And even the smallest of created things 

Might soar aloft and buzz about on wings. 

If through such varied forms the soul survives, 

Man must have led some hundred million lives. 

Pharaoh may have been a water rat, 

The soul of Caesar lived again in a cat— 

And so on : but to proceed the whole scale through 

Would weary our patience and the reader's too. 

Thro what gradations must have passed the mule. 

Best living type and likeness of a fool. 

His soul at one time may have lived in a monkey, 

While the ape at one stage might have been a 

donkey. 
What more pleasing prospect, had we time to pass 
Through the varied evolutions of the ass ! 
Seeing how like the leopard he may change his hide 
But remain the same as when his carcass died ; 
For though the ass should be evolved from 

monkey, 
He'll still remain a very apish donkey. 
What greater proof of the Darwinian plan, 
Whose scale ascends from atom up to man, 
Have we than in this theory that the soul 
Survives in insect, reptile, beast and fowl ! 
We see nature's never-varying law prevail 
From smallest molecule up to whale, 
(Yet not too profound an error did she make. 
Had she evolved the critic from the snake.) 
What greater marvel, reader, I ask. 
How more complex was nature's fearful task, 
How were her pangs a thousand-fold increased 
When she formed man in the likeness of a beast ? 
Thus we oft find men resembling swine : 
The fox, the cur, the goose, in endless line, 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 39 

But for the Critic was no model found, 

In all that dwells above or on the ground. 

He could not be of a celestial birth, 

Twas clear his tendencies dragged him down to 

earth. 
How then did nature fashion I pray 
Tae likensss for this plastic god of clay ? 
Once made, seeing he was more dross than gold, 
She must as worthless thrown aside the mould. 

K then, 'tis the pleasant paths of souls to range 
1 hrough all the sweet vicissitude of change. 
If not to one form alone but many a one, 
Must pass complex all things beneath the sun— 
1 hrough what strange stages must the Critic pass 
At hrst a monkey and at last an ass; 
Almost as great as befell his sire the donkey 
Who was first a quadruped and then a monkev » 
Yet, though the Critic retain his human shape * 
In thought and actions he is still an ape. 



lobe's? (auerp anb ^nmtx. 

"Lovest me as I love you ?" he cried : 
"Vex thou not me with this vague unrest 

Does the flame that lit and glorified 
My life still burn within thy breast?" 

"Grievous the bitter wound, worse ruth 
That Cupid's arrow made," she said ' 

"But were the god banished, then in truth 
Your image would abide instead." 



40 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 



Hobe in Summer. 

In the pleasant days of summer, 
With flowers and birds in tune : 

Then shone love, a blithe new-comer. 
In the days of June. 

But in the bleak November, 

When the wind whistles at the door, 
Fadeth love, a dying ember, 

To return— ah, nevermore ! 



©be to tlje JHnibersfe. 

I. 

I sing of the worlds and of time— the multitudi- 
nous phases 
Of all things that in heaven or earth appear. 

From the stars and suns that shine in their infin- 
ite spaces, 
Down to the lowest object that buzzes or grovels 
here ; 

Of beast in the earth, fish in the sea, and bird in 
the sky : 

No matter how low they be, no matter how high. 

Are they not all of equal worth, and were they 
not all 

Created alike by Him, and upheld by his command 

Who has made this wide-arched sky as well as the 
earthly ball. 

And sustains them each by his all-powerful hand? 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 41 

For which were better, that a world should fall or 

man ? 
Were the harm the same to the least as the 

greatest one ? 
Or the wrong-working impulse worse to his great 

plan, 
If earth should fall with all its weight into the sun 
Than an ant, a gnat or a snail should never be 

born? 
Is the life of an angel of greater worth to Him 

than a fly ? 
If we can not read his purpose clear nor all his 

wonders see, 
Not less does God appear toman, but only the 

weaker he. 
Lo, the first prime-moving Cause, 
In the planet-spaces has set the infinite orbs : 

Some if not all peopled with life. 
Perchance, therefore greater the danger of death, 

Upheld by universal laws; 
He shoots the meteor star, the wandering planet 

curbs. 
Quells the celestial strife and kindles each to mo- 
tion with his breath. 

Behold, the stars sing together in majesty and joy, 
Creation's primal hymn their tongues employ ; 
But man, dumb and blind of eye and ear. 
The matchlesa harmony of creation can not hear. 
The dead for many a year 
Unto man's darker eye, 
In his sight appear 
Arrayed in majesty. 
i^The dead, the vast, the dumb at his bidding come, 
And man rescued from his self-doomed obscurity. 



42 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

II. f 

All spirits of the incorporeal air, 

All living forms and shapes, 
On earth, from brute to man ; 

To the invisible that escapes. 
None to find its essence can — 

Up to the felt and known, 

God ruleth from his throne. 
All living colors and all breathed sounds, 
Which animate our earth to its remotest bounds ; 

Forever here, forever there, 
Chanting celestial songs, attuned to praise and 

prayer. 
To the Omnipotent are as the dust that perishes, 
Drawn from the sun the light that nature cherishes 

Relit on earth the mould 

Of lite from worlds of old, 
That through the distant spaces their wonders 
deep unfold ; 

Rut man, though dumb and blind, 

A portion of the mind 
Inherits of the Giver of the seasons and the years 
As the color of the sun in the raindrop appears. 
So in his eye is imaged the celestial spheres, 
Until the nod of the unseen God, doth end at once 

the beauty it called forth. 

III. 

Majestic is the power 

1 hat rules the starry spheres, i 

Guiding from hour : j 

Resplendent each appears, . 

Sparkling hke dew-drops in the front of heaven; I 

Glistening like gold, amethyst or bright sapphire. 

In a million rings of fire, 



OF THE GODS, ETC. 43 

About the celestial axle for countless ages rolled. 
Wonderful is the force 
That keeps each in its course, 
From age to age preserves each lucent star. 

All for their various purposes : 
The Polar Star to light the weary traveler ; 
The Great and Lesser Bear,Perseus nightly reveler 
The Milky Way, 
A stellar day, 
And farthest nebulae ; 

Planets and asteroids, 
Satellites, planetoids. 
And older suns in their degree. 
And farther worlds than we can see. 
Wheeling through their spacious bounds 
In their unerring rounds, 
Each moving now as they have since time begun: 
And never strikes planet and never clashes sun! 

IV. 

Thou Power divine, and giver of all good, 

Above and over all, 
Ruler of space and time although half understood 
The great all-potent force 

That boldest each radiant orb within its course : 
Builder and projector, 
Guide and director, 
Preserver from all harm. 
Giver of peace and ruler of the storm : 

Thou that from this low plane of earth, 
Startest the blazing meteor forth 
Down wandering to earth to scorch and scathe • 
That settest on time and space a fiery hand. 
And rulest all with calm and tranquil mind,' 



44 TRCEZENE: A MASQUE 

Every planet, world and star 

Watchest from afar ; 

The same in lightning bristening 

As in the rainbow glistening ; 
From the lowest of earth's creatures, 
1 o souls that dwell in bright celestial natures— 
From the high stars whose spheres no eye can see. 
From yon far orbs and multitudes of suns, 
Down to the infinitesimal that runs 
In vital blood of atoms, all is contained in Thee : 
The earth, the air, the worlds, the planets and 
the sea. 

The dreadful earthquake and the fierce typhoon. 
Rock earth and shake her temples, and may soon 
End all, and they no longer be : 
For who is there can read or understand 
The mighty miracles of thy strong hand ? 
Yet thou who heed'st the swallow as he flies, 
And all that lives in ocean, earth and skies. 
Guide thou my steps with thy unerring light, 
And from the maze of systems and of worlds. 
Direct my course aright. 

1897, 

[The End.] 



